While the present invention has a number of useful applications, one important application for which the polyester/acrylic emulsions in accordance with the invention were developed is textile sizing.
One popular type of textile slasher dyeing size is a polyester resin which is cross-linked with melamine resin. Such size is sold, for example, as Eastman WD. Melamine resin contains a certain level of free formaldehyde, and formaldehyde is generated and released during the cross-linking reaction, a chemical considered a hazard.
Among other aspects of the present invention, there is provided an aqueous polyester/acrylic dispersion useful as a size which requires no curing, such as with melamine resin. Further, the size is intended to remain with the textile, providing the textile with both water- and solvent- resistance.